Only in Alaska....

Last week was all work after Jon returned from Chicago.  The temps have slowly warmed and the snow is disappearing, even the big piles of it.  Days are getting longer and we had to add dark towels to cover our small window in the bedroom.....sun rises earlier than we want to!  Some student nurses and physician assistants have arrived for various lengths of time, so Jon includes them in the call schedule as well as their daily assignments.  He was up most of Sunday night, teaching Kathryn as they tended to the emergencies. We also ate out together at the local Thai place.....excellent food and picnic tables in the back.

Despite the loss of sleep, Jon rallied and we went ahead with our last excursion away from Glennallen on Monday.  TOK was our destination....about the only place left that we haven't seen in this southeastern corner of the state.  Tok is on the main highway from Canada and the USA, the only 'port' that you have to exit from as well as enter.....unless you ferry home.  So Tok is a bit bigger and a bit spiffier than Glennallen....not much, but a bit.  It is the 'mushing' capital of Alaska.....so seeing these types of sleds displayed made a bit of sense.  

We even saw green grass, not just on the roof os this gift shop!  The sprinkler was running, so we had to time our entrance to avoid the shower from above. 

The vehicles may have been on display, but I don't know.  About any type of vehicle is seen on the roads, or off.  We did not have time to venture further up the road to Chicken, Alaska.  It leads to Eagle and was part of the original gold rush highway to the Yukon River.  From the guidebook, we would 


have had to have a hardier vehicle and nerves of steel.  Another time?

 We ate at FAST EDDY'S, a very nice restaurant in these parts.
We even ordered milkshakes to go....something we haven't seen for some time.

 The Wrangell Mts. seem closeby in Glennallen, but this cutoff to Tok took us around them to the east and we saw a totally different side of them.  I'm not sure which river this is as the Slana joins the Gakona, which joins the Copper River, which dumps into Prince Edward Sound.  The rivers tend to be broad and meandering as the glacial silt settles along the way.

 Trumpeter Swans begin to migrate north from Central America and 80 % of them nest in this area of Alaska.  Many of the waterways are still partly frozen, so some were roosting on the ice.  These had found open water and were 'fishing' for food.

Mr. Moose, and his friends, were most unhappy about posing for pictures!  They seemed to always turn around and give us the rear view by the time we stopped and got the camera out.  We have seen a lot of them this time of year as they are migrating also.

Jon has one more day of work and he is on his last overnight call.  Thursday we'll clean the apartment and pack.  Maybe we'll have time to drive to Willow Lake and stop at the Princess Lodge for lunch.  He treated a young employee from the lodge so they may be open for business.  The cruise lines built it for their benefit.....tourist excursions.  Friday we catch a ride to Anchorage with Donna and Cleve, the chaplain at the clinic and his wife.  Right now I need to start dinner as they are our guests this evening.  Thank you for coming along on our trip and we bid farewell until the next one.